Nutrient Management and Optimized Fertilization on Wheat and Maize in Hebei Province
The project has been focusing on Nutrient Expert based fertilizer recommendation since 2010
IPNI-2009-CHN-HE26
25 Mar 2015
2014 Annual Interpretive Summary
This study was continued in 2014 to validate the long-term effect of Nutrient Expert(R) (NE)-based fertilizer recommendations for winter wheat (the fifth crop) and summer maize (the sixth crop) in farmer fields and to compare them with current farmer fertilization practices (FP). For this study, 14 on-farm winter wheat and 11 summer maize experiments were conducted in Xinji and Zhengding Cities, Hebei. NE plots received an average of 187-85-90 of N-P2O5-K2O/ha in summer maize and 182-107-86 of N-P2O5-K2O/ha in winter wheat; whereas, FP plots received 225-120-50 of N-P2O5-K2O/ha in both summer maize and winter wheat.
Results found no significant differences in winter wheat grain yield between the NE (7.6 t/ha) and FP treatments (7.5 t/ha); however, NE produced higher yields in summer maize (10.5 t/ha) than under FP (8.3 t/ha). The partial factor productivity (PFP) values of N were 43.9 and 27.0 kg/kg under NE and FP, respectively, during winter wheat season; corresponding values were 56.1 and 45.7 kg/kg for NE and FP for summer maize. Yield and PFP results show that NE could obtain higher productivity and nutrient use efficiency through less fertilizer input for at least three winter wheat and summer maize rotations.